As much as I love Bear Queen Mormant, I suspect that she will fall victim to 20 good men and end up on one of the flaming crosses that were shown in the season teaser.

Why? No proof at all, but I believe that it is going to be a desperate battle and last stand for Jon's forces(Taking into account the wildlings being hemmed in by a Bolton shield wall in the teaser.) That requires them being bailed out by whoever Sansa wrote that letter to.)

As much as I'd like for Ramsey to get stomped by Wun-Wun and get fed to Ghost, D&D seem to be heading for a Jon/Ramsey fight.

Wow. These past four episodes have been the first time in the entire run of GoT I've actually been distracted by iffy storytelling. There's still a lot of great character stuff happening here and there, but the actual driving events of this season have bounced between underwhelming to strikingly awkward.

I felt like Jaime's victory was too rushed. While I certainly buy that the Freys couldn't have convincingly threatened Edmure's son, and while Edmure's always been depicted as less than the sharpest tool in the shed, I feel like they should have let that one cook a little longer.

I DO like the curve they threw us on Cersei's trial by combat. They've gone to that well twice, the second time to invert the results of the first; a big part of this story's appeal is setting up an obvious path and then pulling the rug out from under us. How many mixed metaphors is that?

So now we don't know what's going to happen. We know Cersei's plotting something. We know Margaery's plotting something. We don't know if Tommen knows Margaery's plotting something; it doesn't seem like he does since he's so guileless, but maybe he'll surprise us. And if there's anywhere Septa Unella gives Margaery privacy and an opportunity to speak freely, it's probably the marital bed.

I still think CleganeBowl is gonna happen, because I can't think of any more narratively satisfying resolution for either Clegane's story; the two of them not crossing paths would be like a Popeye cartoon where Bluto beats up Popeye, Popeye eats his spinach, and then he just fucks off somewhere and never sees Bluto again. Or a Lord of the Rings movie where Gandalf returns to Orthanc, the camera starts to pan up the tower, there's an awkward cut, Gandalf says "And there Saruman must stay," and you never see Saruman again.

Anyway, eventually I think the Cleganes will fight it out, but it doesn't look like it'll be the way I expected, and that's a good thing. The idea of Sandor fighting on behalf of the High Sparrow was always a bit of a tough sell.

And what's Varys up to? In the books he never left King's Landing in the first place, and the latest book ends with him assassinating Kevan and making it look like Tyrion did it. The show could be moving in that direction, but what he told Tyrion didn't make it sound like King's Landing was his destination.

I still wouldn't rule out (book spoilers) Lady Stoneheart showing up; obviously the context would be different since Brienne's already been to Riverrun and left, but I don't see much other reason to reintroduce the Brotherhood without Banners. Sure, Dondarrion's presence might make hers a little less likely given that in the books his immortality passed to her, but the show doesn't have to follow those same rules. And this episode featured no fewer than three characters going, "Hey, you guys remember Catelyn Stark?" And this season has demonstrated that when all the other characters start asking "Where's Poochie?", it's usually a pretty good indication that Poochie's about to show back up.

I thought they kept reminding us of Catelyn Stark because everyone had already forgotten how the Stark's extended family works. I know I had figured all that was left was four kids running in every direction.

If they want pull the rug out of us with the battle, how about it is all just a vision Melisandre shows Jon about what happens if he fights? No rescue by Vale forces, just a desperate battle that ends with them all dead on Bolton pikes. When Jon wakes, he in reply to the teaser quote about avoiding a massacre, turns over Sansa.

As for the Qyburn/Cersei plotting I am guessing Wildfire

Sandor is heading north in all likelihood to man Winterfell/The Wall no doubt.

If you know who isn't showing up, this is a clean win for the Freys even if they don't get to keep Edmure. None of them have the spine to protest against Jaime so shutting up and being satisfied with Riverrun is probably going to happen.

So I'm sad, because Wun-Wun died for their CGI budget sins, and also cop out rescue from the vale but that felt like an appropriate karmic end to Ramsay Bolton and I wonder what new shenanigans they plan for episode 10. Maybe Arya gets on a boat, probably Dany gets on boats, Cleganebowl hopefully but probably something boring involving wildfire instead after all that Chekov's Gun mentioning of it this episode, and probably Lady Stoneheart as final 30 seconds next-season-teaser. Also maybe catch up with Sam? His dad catches them and Sam kills him?

That was cool that we got two whole battles in a row that Tyrion doesn't sleep through. Too bad they were both ridiculous and terrible and this show is trash now and it's fun trash but it's trash.

First in Meereen: what the fuck, Danny? You do a pass by then let the dragon fuck off just so you can look cool calling him back during negotiations? People fucking died in that time and they're not even worth a damn since it took all three all that time to burn one ship. That ship that was confirmed to be manned by conscripted slaves moments after. Then she just let a Dothraki horde with very vague orders about tearing down her enemies' cities loose anyway so whatever I guess.

god damn danny and yara stop eyefucking so hard

Then Bastard Bowl: jon snow is a fucking miserable tactician and strategist and 100% should not be leading shit, oh my god. They could not possibly have found a better way to have me rooting for Ramsay than by having Jon immediately disregard the only two pieces of advice Sansa gave him. Never mind disregarding any and all common sense or will to survive or of the battlefield. Like seriously, how the fuck do you miss a literal wall of dead being built behind you? And why was that shield wall like, even a thing to the giant? Just kick forward and there's a huge gap to poor out from. You're not innocent here either Onion Knight, you seriously bring the archers so close that they get trapped too? Did you not see the wall of dead either? you came from that direction.

poor giant, too beautiful for this world, too op, and I guess we need more reasons to hate ramsay

In this episode: the Masters forget Dany has dragons, the Wildlings forget they have bows, Wun-Wun forgets he is a giant, Ramsay forgets Wun-Wun is a giant, and Sansa forgets to tell Jon why she's suggesting he maybe wait half a day.

It's like the whole season in microcosm: it had some beautiful shots and a few viscerally satisfying moments marred by the lingering feeling that every single person in the show is stupid.

Disappointed as well. Give Wun Wun a frigging club since he soloed wights for Christ sakes

As for waiting for LF, that goes way into the never ending speculation land. Methinks LF would utterly refuse to have his forces charge after Jon and the enduing TPK would have him grab Sansa and fuck off to the Vale.

I think it's pretty clear that Littlefinger wants to marry Sansa and get control of Winterfell. His obsession with Cat (and sticking it to Ned) has been a pretty big part of his motivation from the word go, though his endgame's never been clear.

I could see Sansa agreeing to it but it'll be a tough row for D&D to hoe. I don't buy her agreeing to it as a precondition for his help, but if things get bad from here and it looks like it's the best way to unite the North, I can see her doing it -- with some preconditions of her own and a plan to have him meet with an unfortunate accident.

She laid out the problem already in this week's episode: yes, the Starks are back in Winterfell, but one of them's a bastard and the other is a woman. (Bran's still out there -- and I'd put good odds on him being Lord of Winterfell by the end of the series -- but I don't think it's going to happen before the end of the series.) They're going to need help.

Then again, I don't see Littlefinger as being terribly influential in the North. Nobody likes him, he's gotten where he is largely by exploiting Lysa's feelings for him, and while I'm sure Winterfell and Sansa are what he wants, his plans are usually smarter and subtler than that.

One of the numerous theories postedHere Is that Sansa is basically Lady Stoneheart after years of abuse and set Jon and Rickon up for death. No more true than any other theory but if true I think it would be an interesting spin. Unfortunately, D&D haven't shown that level of depth in the series.

Yara is taking the Iron Islands.Danny will have the Iron Throne.The Seven and their Sparrows will be replace by The Lord of Light and Red Priestesses.Something happens to Bran and Sansa rules the north.